alleys, and netanyahu has decided to do that. how should the white house feel under those circumstances. >> cenk: it is tough. all i can say that benjamin met yahoo was in the hillary clinton video. maybe he's waiting for 2016. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you eliot. >> e [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday, december 4. so good to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. your new progressive morning show. the only progressive morning show anywhere on cable television in this country. good to have you with us this morning. we will tell you -- bring you up

to date on all of the latest news of the day and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. and word is out this morning that roger ails told david petraeus when he was still in iraq that he should quit and run for president of the united states against barack obama and if he did so, roger ails said he would quit fox news and run his campaign. how about it. don't tell me fox news is not the broadcast arm of the republican party. that proves it! all right. we'll get into that and a whole lot more here. first we get the latest current news update from lisa ferguson out in los angeles. hi lisa. good morning. >> hey bill. good morning everyone. so far the president seems to be staying strong when it comes to taxes. as you all know by now house republicans sent in a fiscal cliff counter offer yesterday but the white house is calling it no good. i want to give you an idea of

where the two sides stand right now. boehner's new plan would raise $2.2 trillion. now it would extend the bush tax cuts for everyone and yes that does include the top 2%. and it would instead raise $800 billion in revenue from so-called tax reform and that's what we mean when we talk about capping deductions and closing loopholes. the rest of the money comes from cuts to both mandatory and discretionary programs. now to recap again on the president's offer, he wants to raise $1.6 trillion, that's double boehner's amount on the rich an and he's asking for more than $200 billion in stimulus spending and promising about $400 billion worth of cuts to social programs. now obviously those two plans have very little in common. neither side is budging when it comes to their demands on taxes. but now here are a few problems with boehner's proposal. for one, he has yet to get specific on which deductions and loopholes he actually plans to get rid of. for another, he's trying to

borrow from the simpson bowles agenda of raising revenue by lowering rates. now obviously that seems a bit contradictive. the difference here is that the simpson bowles plan let the bush tax plan expire first before they revise the rates. honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. 28 day the to go now and -- 28 days to go now and they're still nowhere closer to a deal on the fiscal cliff. but john boehner showed up at the white house christmas party last night. yeah free booze. that will get them every time.

what do you say? hello, everybody. great to see you today. it is tuesday december 4. this is the "full court press." booming out to you live on your local progressive talk radio station on sirius x.m. this hour only. for some reason. and all three hours of course, on current tv. great to see you today. thanks for being part of the program. we've got lots and lots to talk about. on the news here from our nation's capital. on the news around the country. here in our nation's capital, it is mainly fiscal cliff. around the country, duane says it is too bad his girlfriend didn't have a gun then they could have had a shoot-out and other people could have been killed. in syria more signs of president assad's days are numbered and the white house warning syria you better not think about using chemical weapons like saddam hussein did.

so we'll bring it all to you. take your calls. give you a chance to sound off. you can do so by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. that is our toll free number. follow us on twitter. give us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook, follow us on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. here we go. peter ogborn and dan henning. >> happy tuesday. >> bill: team press here this morning. >> good morning. >> bill: phil backert has the phones. cyprian bowlding, a delighted redskins fan this morning. he's got the video camera. >> he's going to celebrate this morning. >> bill: dan didn't wear his giants garb this morning. >> for those who don't know, there is a rift here in the bill "bill press show." dan is a big giants fan. cyprian supports the football team here in washington. it is a heated rivalry. >> bill: even if your team loses, don't you think you would

wear the gear? >> i have the hat. i am absolutely loyal. they played a solid game last night. right up until they didn't win. >> they almost won. >> spoken like a true fan. they played a great game until they lost. >> bill: here's what it sounded like on espn right at the end there. >> rejuvenated football in the nation's capital. redskins and giants split. it looks like they've won a game here at fedex field. and all they are is within a game of the division lead. >> bill: 17-16. >> i will say as a giants fan the redskins are a solid contender this year and they have a fabulous rookie quarterback. >> bill: rgiii. >> he's very good. >> bill: there we go. we've got the nats and redskins coming up. whoa suddenly, sports town. >> i wouldn't get too carried away with that. the last couple of games they looked very good. they also lost to the panthers

this season and they had some very terrible games. if they had really gotten their act together and if they played the way they've been playing the last couple of games things might have turned around for them. >> bill: if our sports teams can start delivering, maybe our politicians can. don't ask too much here, right? >> i was going to say let's not get too carried away. the wizards have won one game this season. >> bill: they should never have changed their name from the bullets. >> i agree wholeheartedly. >> all of the new ones. >> bill: downhill ever since. coming up today senator sherrod brown, big winner for re-election in ohio even though the super pac spent billions of dollars against him. well maybe not billions but millions and millions against him. sherrod brown is going to tell us how he did it. tuesdays, think progress igor volsky from think progress here with us later in this hour.

lynn sweet washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times" as a "friend of bill." lots of fun coming up. lots of important stuff to talk about including a bogus proposal by john boehner yesterday. on the fiscal cliff. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> on this tuesday other headlines making news, the most eagerly awaited pregnancy in recent times was announced yesterday. duchess kate middleton pregnant with what would be the third in line to the british throne. child of prince william. he and kate have been married for 19 months. kate was admitted to the hospital yesterday suffering from acute morning sickness. she needed extra hydration and nutrients and will spend a couple of days there. she's reportedly not quite 12 weeks pregnant so she's likely due in may or june. >> bill: third in line. it would be charles then william and then the baby and harry gets pushed out to pasture. >> bill: even if baby x is a

girl? >> absolutely. the way they changed the line of succession to the throne, even if it's a girl. >> bill: you know it's big news when the white house press briefing opened with jay carney congratulating on behalf of the president and the first lady and everybody here at the white house, we all congratulate kate middleton for her pregnancy. >> it is a big story. >> bill: it is hardly the number one news story -- hardly worth the white house briefing. anyhow, not the first one to get pregnant. >> it is not that hard to get pregnant. i mean good for her and everybody. >> president obama has not started his second term yet but there is already a push to create his presidential library. the "chicago sun-times" and lynn sweet is reporting the university of chicago is pushing to figure out how to get the president to make them a serious contender. maybe an easy push as the obamas have many close ties to that

school. presidential libraries act as part museum, part archive and they're funded through public/private partnerships. >> bill: he was a professor there. obviously that would be the place to put it. at the same time, let me say the last thing this country needs is another presidential library. they're all -- i think total waste of time and money. they should put their papers in the smithsonian library and stop all of this crap about everybody having to have his or her own library. his so far. >> besides, the university of kenya already has a very nice library. >> and in sports, the top finalists for college football's most famous player of the year award were announced yesterday. contenders for the heisman trophy are texas a&m quarterback johnny manzel. linebacker manty taio and collin klein. the winner will be announced this saturday in new york city. manzel is the favorite. >> the correct answer is johnny manzel will win the heisman

trophy this year. that's all there is to it. >> bill: is he the freshman? >> he is going to win. >> bill: i'll take your word for it. i don't know any of them. i wouldn't know who to vote for. >> you don't get to vote. >> luckily, you don't get to vote. they will give it to the defensive player. collin klein had a very good year but nobody had a better season than johnny manzel. >> bill: i'll take your word for it. i'll tell you what, i have a vote on john boehner's baloney plan yesterday they threw out there on the table. i would love to get your take on it too at 1-866-55-press. my vote is no! my vote is laughing all the way. so, you know what was going on. so for the fiscal cliff negotiations so far it really is serious stuff because the last thing we can afford right now is another 2008 debacle where people lose their shirt because the federal government -- the politicians here members of congress can't

get their act together. but at any rate, you had one plan on the table. the president's plan. republicans saying the president -- there are too many questions and there's not enough specificity and -- baloney. president put out a plan about a year ago. it is in print. it is online. the president has a very specific plan. the republicans who didn't put anything on the table who had not countered with anything concrete at all. in fact, yesterday at our briefing, before boehner released his counter plan, jay carney said again that all you hear from the republicans are vague promises. >> you're making vague promises about achieving revenue through capping deductions or closing loopholes simply doesn't add up to a serious proposal. >> bill: so then yesterday the republicans realized they had to come up with something

put something on the table. come up with this proposal which would cut $2.2 trillion over the next ten years. the president by the way would cut $4 trillion over the next two years. but here's out how republicans would do it. they would cut social security. they would cut medicare. they would cut $600 -- medicare meaning they would raise the age eligibility from 65 to 67. they would cut $600 billion in unspecified cuts. they'll cut spending. they don't tell us where. but it's not defense spending. those are social programs. they would cut another $800 billion or raise $800 billion in revenues they say by closing loopholes and getting rid of deductions. but again they don't tell where. what loopholes they would close.

is it the mortgage interest deduction? we don't know. they do not specify. so again it is a lot -- it is filled with vague promises but here's the big difference. notice what is not included and what they say they will not do. they will not raise tax rates. they will not raise taxes on the top wealthiest 2% of americans. they say no way. no how will that be included. they're dead wrong. they're wasting time. when i saw that proposal yesterday, to coin a word, you know what my reaction was? i was flabbergasted! oh, my god. i was flabbergasted. >> thank you mr. speaker. >> bill: john boehner isn't the only one. flabbergasted that they would have the audacity to put something like that forward when they know it's not going anywhere. it's a total joke. social security has not contributed to the deficit.

social security should not be on the table. these guys hate social security so much, they want to get rid of social security and medicare so much that everything they put forward has to have cuts in medicare and social security. so that's a nonstarter. the president has said he's not going to touch social security. the president said he's not going to raise the eligibility age for medicare. and the president has also said jay carney said it again yesterday, he's not even going to consider any bill that continues tax rates for the wealthiest of americans. >> he will not sign an extension of the bush era tax cuts for the top 2%. full stop. >> bill: full stop. >> this is what i don't get about this. this is not some new idea. this is not something that obama is you know, pulling out of the clear blue sky. it is something he ran on. this is what the election was

about. >> bill: and the people voting. >> overwhelmingly. >> bill: we have to go back to the beginning. these tax cuts were enacted by george w. bush in 2001. still a bad idea then, i believe. at any rate, we had a surplus. it was sold to the american people because we have a surplus, we ought to give money back. we'll have the tax cuts across the board which benefitted mostly the wealthiest of americans. we knew that at the time. they were adopted as a temporary measure. what part of temporary doesn't john boehner understand? what part of temporary don't these republicans understand, right? i mean what is it about suddenly suddenly, it's become gospel. it is sacrosanct that you can never raise tax on the richest of americans. the very ones i'm one of them, who ought to be paying more in taxes. it is just insane! so they were attempted as a temporary measure and they're going to expire in ten years. why in ten years? because everybody knew in ten years things might change. we might no longer have a

surplus and we might need the money. that's exactly what the case is today. president obama extended them for two years. i wish he hadn't but he did. why? because it was the price he paid for getting the debt ceiling increase and for extending unemployment benefits for millions of americans. well now everything has changed. now we can -- we simply can no longer afford welfare for the rich. it is handing millionaires and billionaires a great big fat like $150,000 check a year. we can't afford it. we don't have the money. peter, as you pointed out, this is the number one issue in the election. the president made it clear at every appearance. if you want tax cuts, if you want the wealthiest of americans to pay a little more in taxes their fair share vote for me. if you want to give them a free ride, vote for romney. it's over. this issue has been decided. john boehner total total joke. i think the president -- i mean should just reject this thing out of hand and say we would

rather have -- okay, here's my vote. do you agree? 1-866-55-press. my vote is no deal. no deal rather than a bad deal. no deal rather than give the wealthiest 2% another tax cut. john boehner no deal! >> i'm flabbergasted. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." "talking points" that the right have about "the heavy hand of government". i want to have that conversation. let's talk about it. really. really! that you're gonna lay people off because now the government's going to help you fund your health care. really? i wanna be able to have those conversations. not just to be confrontational, but to understand what the other side is saying. and you know, i'd like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the

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>>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. they're doing this this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>that's an understatement, eliot. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: hey, how about it.

25 minutes after the hour. here on this tuesday. john boehner mucking things up yesterday by putting out a proposal that's not serious at all. laughed out of the room. he ought to be. you know, republicans just gotta understand house republicans have to understand we had an election. elections have consequences. peter ogborn, what's happening in the social world? >> we're tweeting at bpshow at bp show. you can find us there. we've already given out speaker boehner's twitter handle and phone number and web site if you want to get in touch with him. if you want to find him on twitter, it is at speaker boehner. >> bill: this is another time -- this is the time to repeat our call from yesterday for boehner saying this is a classic example of boehner refusing to lead. if you're not going to lead, resign, let somebody else lead. >> let him know how you feel. you can call the speaker's office. you can go to their web site and send him an e-mail directly at

speaker.gov/contact. again, we put that out on twitter where we're tweeting at bpshow. astacia writes in on the counter offer from republicans, why don't they start by getting rid of congress's healthcare, retirement and social security then let's see where we're at. >> bill: a little taste of their own medicine. great response yesterday from many of you. thousands of you to speaker boehner's office telling him to resign. as we started yesterday morning here on the "full court press." len calling from north bend, oregon. hey, len, good morning. >> caller: good morning, bill. >> bill: hi. >> caller: with all of this talk of cutting entitlements, it has been going on for quite awhile. >> bill: yeah. >> caller: i haven't heard a single politician on either side of the aisle talk about raiding the cap on -- raising the cap on what a tax pater pays to fica. it is $110,000 i believe right now. if it were doubled, that would

make social security completely solvent. it where be -- >> bill: forever. >> and how come -- what am i listening to here? >> bill: i think -- here what it is, len. you're right by the way. that's the quickest way the fairest way the easiest way and the best way to fix social security. but the obama administration and harry reid right now democrats don't want social security even on the table because it is not connected. the republicans -- want it there because they want to cut social security but the democrats are saying look, social security is not the problem. there is an easy fix to that. we'll take care of that later. we'll take care of that next. but right now don't touch social security. don't touch it. just put it out of the equation. and deal with fiscal crisis as it is. deal with the need for combination balanced approach of spending cuts that the president's put forward and new tax revenue which the president

knows most of it has to come for tax cuts for the wealthiest. when we solve that problem then we'll let them deal with social security. but not muck it up right now. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." and i'm just blanking a little bit. i think his phrase for it was feed the beast going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour here on tuesday december 4. it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our studio here on capitol hill in washington d.c. and we've got three hours to

fill every day. we easily fill it because we just go to think progress and then copy everything that they have -- that they've reported on or bring you the news of what they've reported on. igor volsky is the deputy editor of think progress. here with us every tuesday morning. tuesdays with igor. good morning igor. >> good morning. >> bill: good to see you again. we've been talking and you were very quick to jump on the boehner counterproposal. i don't know whether -- i don't know about you but when i saw it, i was flabbergasted. >> shocked really. i laughed loudly. >> bill: but your headline is republicans revert to pre-election tax plan, promise to raise revenues by magic. >> they'll just come up with the $800 billion somehow somewhere without hurting middle class americans. >> bill: but they don't tell us -- so $800 billion is new revenue from closing loopholes

and deductions, right? but which ones? >> not sure. >> bill: who knows. pull a rabbit out of the hat. >> the pre-election is it is $800 billion that boehner offered in 2011 using romney's way of closing loopholes and deductions in some way some deductions some loopholes mysterious, to get you to $800 billion. we know if you target the loopholes and deductions that go toward the top 10%, 10 pest of americans, you get about $400 billion and change. you don't get to $800 so where do you get the $800? it is unclear. >> bill: mortgage interest deductions. my suspicions. then also, we're going to cut $600 billion from health programs meaning social security. >> mm-hmm. >> bill: raising the age eligibility for medicare. then on top of that, another $300 billion in spending cuts to

social programs. which ones? >> we don't know. >> bill: again we don't know, right? it is all smoke and mirrors. >> they say the committee and the house -- which is exactly what ryan said in the election. >> bill: exactly what we want. turn it over to the house republicans. they lost this election! >> you know, the other piece is that they talk about having, this big deal of having a downpayment. do you the downpayment. this year. and then next year, you really figure out how to reform the tax code and all of that. but in the downpayment and this is key house republicans are asking for medicare savings. now, you'll remember during the campaign they said if you're receiving medicare now you're a current beneficiary, nothing will change of the now we have a different tune. they're asking for savings today, not ten years from now. >> bill: this is the so-called entitlement reform. so you really do have a case --

we've made this point so many times, the republicans not accepting the fact that the american people have spoken. that was the whole purpose of putting everything off until after the election. >> that's right. >> bill: because then we would have -- american people have chosen the course. i was at the white house where jay carney said yet again the president will never sign anything close to what the republicans -- they ought to stop -- who are they kidding? stop trying to kid themselves. there is a guy most americans haven't heard of. ken cuccinelli. he's the attorney general of virginia. announced he's going to run for governor of virginia. the name of the lieutenant-governor who -- belcher -- >> bolling -- was considered to have the odds on favorite. he dropped out. >> endorsed cuccinelli, i believe. >> bill: endorsed cuccinelli. and cuccinelli looks like will be the republican nominee

against terry mcauliffe former dnc chair who played golf with president obama and president clinton last saturday. what do we know about cuccinelli? >> he's like virginia's todd akin in the sense -- >> oh, good! >> bill: great. just what we need. >> really, i think a lot more ideological and a lot more -- i think persuasive when it comes to making his case. so going through his policy positions, you have obviously no abortion cases of rape or incest, trying to defund planned parenthood going after having all kinds of notification periods. that's all in his record, voting for all of that. >> bill: i'm sure he was for the -- >> ultrasound. >> bill: the probe. >> the probe yeah. then i mean his record on gay and lesbian rights is atrocious. he went out of his way to make sure -- voted against the bill

that would allow or encourage private companies to offer domestic partnership benefits based on the idea that if they do it might encourage that kind of behavior. all kinds of quotes about homosexual behavior being immoral and wrong. went after public universities in virginia for extending benefits to gay and lesbian employees. i mean this is a guy who really kind of takes his ideology very seriously. >> bill: a combination tea party and religious conservative right? >> exactly right. >> that's terrifying. >> bill: that is terrifying. he's also the one who led the fight among attorney generals around the country i believe against obama care. he's the one who filed the lawsuit. >> those of us who worked on healthcare have a big stake in this guy. not being the governor of virginia. absolutely. he, i think -- he was the first in virginia.

he wasn't part of the multi-state lawsuit that florida ran. he had the separate lawsuit. and funny story, i was covering the supreme court hearings when they were here in -- hearing the healthcare case. i said mr. attorney general, can we speak to you. what did you think? because he was inside. he said where are you from? i said i'm from think progress. his face went all slack. he was like think progress? you guys just lie and distort prop prop -- propaganda and -- >> i didn't know it was going to turn out that way. >> bill: oh, man, all right. igor volsky with us from think progress. check him out at thinkprogress.org. so one other issue that you got into yesterday after the tragic murder suicide for the kansas city chiefs over the weekend, the -- bob costas on

sunday night quoting another sportswriter said you know, wouldn't have happened if there were not a gun involved. yesterday the head of the nra came out ripping -- >> less than 24 hours later. >> bill: ripping into bob costas. here's wayne. >> just disgusted. i mean they tune in to watch a sporting event and meanwhile what they get in regard to this cold-blooded murder that took place is they get a national sportscaster whining about his social agenda that he wants adopted to ban firearms and ban handguns. i mean the american public, it is shameful. they're disgusted by it. >> by the way shout out to the nra for putting a guy named lapierrre in charge of their organization. that's great. >> they know how to do it. >> did he succeed the last guy mr. fancy pants?

>> bill: lapierrre says there is an answer here. this wouldn't have happened if only -- right dan do we have -- >> he doesn't say anything -- he wouldn't have said a thing last night if this woman had saved her life by having a firearm available. >> how about the baby? >> bill: why didn't the 2-month-old baby have a gun? >> you can have the fetus -- i don't even know. >> bill: think progress is -- bobs costas was not out of line? >> well, you know, the public outrage from this guy from fox news all day long about this -- when we have some kind of national -- >> bill: fox news was after costas. >> when there is some kind of national security tragedy when the consulate in benghazi is bombed, we sit around and talk how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? ramp up security?

how do we prevent that from happening. when people have a problem with healthcare, how do you solve the problem. here or with any other rampant shooting that occurs way too much in this country if you even talk about -- try to have a conversation of can gun control play a role, play a factor. you're shouted down. people have called for costas to resign, to be fired for these kinds of things. >> bill: it's true. if there's any mass murder here, you can talk about every aspect of it. trayvon martin, you can talk about every aspect of it. you cannot mention there was a gun involved. same thing with this murder suicide, jason belcher -- javon belcher. right, murder, suicide tragic case. but you can talk about again any aspect of it. were there head injuries involved you know, was she out

partying, got home too late. did he crack? were there any signs? but you cannot mention the gun right? you cannot -- according to nra it is never never never never, never okay to mention. virginia tech, you can't mention there was a gun involved. it is ridiculous. the nra is so much powerful. clearly the most powerful lobbying. >> with the republican party. >> bill: they own the republican party. 1-866-55-press. covering the waterfront here with think progress and igor volsky here on the "full court press" this morning. join the conversation at -- commenting on anything we've been talking about at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." in their positions. i want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion. come away armed with facts and

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>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: it is 13 minutes before the top of the hour. top of the next hour, we'll be jumping up to boston to talk to political reporter at the "boston globe" about the elizabeth warren campaign. how's it going and she have >> bill: we're visiting with igor volsky. he's visiting with us. deputy editor of think progress at thinkprogress.org. you can follow him on twitter too, at igor volsky. you can follow us on twitter at bpshow peter. >> we're at bpshow. we've asked all morning long about what they -- what our twitter followers think about the counteroffer by republicans. such a piece of garbage. please reach out to john boehner at speaker boehner on twitter. gracey saying why do republicans

keep harping about entitlements. they're earned benefits. is it to satisfy some deep-seated sadistic need to starve people? allen says i have an idea! let's let speaker boehner live on my paycheck for a month. i bring home $480 every two weeks after taxes. and damian says he reached out to speaker boehner on twitter and said i told him he was wrong and bill, speaker boehner started crying. he's very sad. >> bill: i guess -- we've been asking everybody to get in touch with this office and tell them to lead or get out of the way. lead or resign because he's showing no leadership by sticking to the same old tired arguments that they were -- that we heard before november 6th. but i guess we should have warned people that -- expect him to break down. >> feelings may get hurt. >> emotional guy. >> bill: you know where he was last night man. he might be total anti-obama,

unwilling to compromise, not willing to even recognize there was an election but he was at the white house christmas party last night. at the congressional ball, man. he and -- i know -- i don't know whether eric cantor was there who doesn't celebrate christmas either but it is a congressional ball for the holiday season. i know kevin mccarthy was there. so good sheriff of the republican leadership was there. we'll have to get the full list of republicans. >> we'll find out. >> bill: there's nothing particular with john boehner nothing like free booze. right? [ laughter ] >> bill: can't resist, man. uh-huh. i'm not going to get together with that guy. i don't want to talk to him about -- what? [ laughter ] >> bill: red wine? free red wine? i'll be there. >> if it gets him to talk, all right. >> bill: hey, let's say hello to ron calling from chicago.

good morning. >> caller: good morning, bill. good morning guys. >> bill: how are you? >> caller: good. i'm on my way to work. i want to make a comment about bob costas. he makes the comments. >> bill: bob costas, yes. >> caller: he makes the comments, what i think in the framework of caring about two people losing their lives. and they want to run him out on the rail and it was just a month ago richard mourdock makes comments, where was the outage he shouldn't even be allowed to run. just the difference of both sides is amazing to me these people that -- >> bill: well, yeah. sometimes it is just hard to explain. the inconsistency outraged about one thing and not outraged about another. when it comes to -- it is not surprising for the nra. this is their position. they've gone from an organization at one time which really did a great job representing hunters and saying

you know, we've got our rights. we want to be able to continue to enjoy that sport. to right now where they will oppose any and every measure no matter how reasonable toward saving lives with just the most reasonable forms of trigger locks. >> background checks. >> bill: background checks at gun shows, for example. >> yeah. >> bill: good point. and here is paul calling from brighton michigan. hey, paul. >> caller: how you doing bill? >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i've been a fan of yours for decades. >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i want to get your opinion on the idiotic republican talking point that lowering taxes on rich people stimulates the economy. i have a degree in economics and my dad was an economics professor. and i know that it's the opposite. >> bill: yeah. >> caller: to stimulate the economy, you have to tax rich people who are just sitting on that money. they're refusing to use it to help the economy.

and the government uses that money to put people to work, rebuilding bridges schools hiring people to inspect our food so we don't die from eating peanut butter or getting shots. >> bill: amen, amen. hey, paul, it has been proven, right? right, igor? we had eight years. >> in great growth and great jobs. in a consumer-based economy where people have to buy -- you have to participate in business for the economy to grow, you've gotta give -- as the president said, you've gotta grow the economy from the middle out. if the relief doesn't go toward middle class americans, if they can't participate in the economy, yeah, you're going to have a top 1% or 2% folks who do really well. if most americans aren't doing well, you won't have a growing economy. >> bill: exactly. as paul pointed out you put the money in the hands of middle class. >> who will use it. >> bill: and grow the economy. put it in the hands of the wealthiest 2% and all they do is

sit on it. we had eight years under bill clinton. tax rates were high and we had 22 million new jobs. eight years under george bush and disaster. igor volsky, great to see you again, my friend. thanks for coming in. thinkprogress.org. and we'll be right back. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of

tell them it's like being nestled in an eight-way, adjustable, heated and ventilated seat surrounded by a 500-watt sound system while floating on a suspension made of billowy clouds. or you could just hand them your keys. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey, lots of comments and responses to our question, we asked at the very top of the hour. should the kkk be allowed to adopt a highway in georgia. >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show."

live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: all right. lynn sweet in studio as a "friend of bill" next hour. and we'll also talk -- check in with nasa for the latest on the rover on mars. meanwhile, natalie says hey bill, love your show. please tell me how a lobbyist can control an elected party. i don't understand it. i don't either. that's all grover norquist is. nobody elected to anything. big republican lobbyist. ann says boehner is a moron! he never takes responsibility for anything! and he's totally in denial about the results of this election! right. so we say to john boehner, with your help, john boehner either lead or get out of the way! rick street says here's my take on the gamesmanship going on. my opinion is republicans are not kidding. not kidding. they're doubling down much the same way the japanese did toward the end of world war ii.

they climb into kamikaze death planes. guess what. they're going to lose this battle just like they lost the election. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hello everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday december 4. welcome to the "full court press." here on current tv. good to see you today. thanks for being part of the program. we want to hear from you about the issues of the day. not only tell you what's going on but hear from you what it means to you and your family.

1-866-55-press. it didn't last long, did it? last week, republicans were saying they were ready to throw grover norquist under the bus. yesterday they proved grover is still in charge. john boehner releasing a fiscal cliff plan but of course, refusing yet again to raise taxes on the top 2%. there you got it. it is not john boehner. it is not mitch mcconnell. it is not mitt romney who's in charge of the republican party. it's a lobbyist by the name of grover norquist. we'll get into that and a whole lot more. first, here's the latest. today's current news update from lisa ferguson. joining us as always from our studios in los angeles. good morning lisa. >> hey bill, good morning everyone. president obama is warning syrian president bashar assad not to use chemical weapons saying that would be a tragic mistake and that assad will be held accountable. u.s. officials are reporting that syria has ordered military

chemical corps to be prepared. now syrian state television claims the country has no plans of using chemical weapons, no matter the circumstances. but the u.s. is worried that syrians are getting ready to put together a nerve gas mixture and that that could be used in artillery shells. the state department called any use of chemical weapons a hard red line and said they are continuing to monitor the situation. meanwhile, iran is claiming it's captured a u.s. drone flying over the persian gulf today. according to internationally-recognized limits, those drones must stay at least 12 nautical miles off the coast. but a u.s. defense official is telling cnn that the u.s. navy has fully accounted for all of its vehicles in the middle east. whatever iranians are claiming to have, it is not an actively operating drone. >> think progress is reporting that police can record video inside your home without a warrant.

that ruling came out of a federal appeals court last week saying that the undercover use of video in a suspect's home does not violate the fourth amendment. obviously that bringing up some concerns and we'll have to wait and see if this goes on to the supreme court. we'll be right back.

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 28 days and who's counting. what the hell. no closer to a deal on the fiscal cliff. not even or maybe especially after republicans put their counter proposal on the table yesterday. what do you say? hello, everybody. great to see you today. it is "full court press."

we are coming to you live from our nation's capital and booming out to you across this great land of ours on your local progressive talk radio station. lucky if you've got one. and on current tv. great to see you today. thanks for joining us. you know, you're part of the program. we invite your comments and look forward to hearing from you on our toll free line at 1-866-55-press. on twitter at bpshow. peter ogborn here in studio with us checking your twitter comments at all times and on facebook. facebook.com/billpressshow. and we've got the chat room going on, too. you can talk to your fellow "full court pressers" about the issues we were talking about by going to current.com and clicking on the chat room. you're going to want to jump in this hour because we've got one of our good friends somebody who has been covering president obama since he was in diapers i think, lynn sweet is the washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times."

here as a "friend of bill" the entire hour. hi lynn, how are you doing? >> great and good morning to you. good morning america! >> thanks for coming in. >> bill: nice to see you. yesterday, it was very interesting. you weren't at the briefing yesterday. i know you had other business. i was and jay carney began the briefing by congratulating princess kate and prince william on behalf of the president the first lady and everybody who worked at the white house and all americans. this is a big deal, right? >> well, it is something when you get the mazel tov from the white house press secretary isn't it? >> bill: it is, indeed. >> bill: they also got the mazel tov. >> i'm sure they'll make brilliant parents and everyone around the country will be celebrating with them tonight. >> i guess everybody, if you want a lot of traffic today on your web site, just put kate middleton in the headline. >> bill: you got it. >> we're in good shape.

>> bill: even -- >> peter make sure. >> i'm going to have to do that. >> we'll have to start doing that. fiscal cliff kate middleton. >> hash tag. >> everything royal pregnancy. >> bill: let's do that. this little baby to be, even made the late night comics last night. jay leno. >> you realize one day that child could grow up to be one of the most powerful unemployed people in the world. [ laughter ] >> just like the grandfather. >> bill: exactly. the whole gang. >> it is nice to have an upbeat story, isn't it? >> bill: it is. and it was just -- a matter of time. as peter said, it is not that hard to get pregnant. >> really? >> we know how it happens. congratulations, i guess. but you know, i mean -- >> bill: it's harder -- it's harder not to get pregnant. >> i'm not going to go there.

but isn't it -- i think -- >> bill: it is nice to have an upbeat story. they're a great couple. >> always fascinating to watch america's fascination with royalty. >> bill: exactly. >> i find it so weird. i really do. i just find america's fascination with what goes on and you know, the queen's diamond jubilee. >> that would have a ring to it. >> king peter, please. >> you can't even give somebody -- >> bill: it wasn't that long ago, the wedding. the wedding was huge. >> i'm very interested in your fascination. did you watch the wedding? can we talk about her dress? >> bill: i can't because we were on the air but that morning, walking over here that morning, i ran into women who were walking to the metro to go join their friends for big watch parties for the royal wedding. and now there will be watch parties for the arrival of that

baby. >> do you think you could start getting like a little bill press hoody so people could send over the gifts. the onesies. get a onesie. >> i have a lot of old baby clothes that we don't use anymore, if it's a boy, we could send them over. >> might need a onesie with the holiday coming up. that might be the "bill press show" product that your listeners want. >> a bill press onesie. >> i love it. can carol knit onesies? >> not knit. >> everybody listening. [ laughter ] >> ask bill his advice. >> bill: i will let you dan call carol after the show and ask her if she wants to start making onesies. enough of that. enough! 11 minutes after the hour. we've got more important things to talk about with lynn sweet and we will. >> more important? >> bill: first boom. >> announcer: this is the "full

court press." >> on this tuesday other headlines making news, climate change will get a big spotlight put on it thanks to a big hollywood name. director and producer james cameron, long-time environmental advocate has signed on to produce a six to eight part documentary airing on show time called years of living dangerously. "usa today" reports he's partnering partnering with arnold schwarzenegger and producers from "60 minutes" on the project along with actors matt damon don cheadle and edward norton. it will be on tv next year. >> bill: al gore involved with this? >> i do not believe so. >> he should be. >> bill: he should be. >> president obama welcomed members of congress to the white house for a christmas party last night. interesting to note this is the fourth straight year where they've taken time out for holiday cheer while being on a strict deadline on huge legislation. the fiscal cliff likely wade for awkward conversations around the eggnog last night. >> bill: i'm sure when john boehner had his picture taken with the president. >> oh, yeah.

>> bill: how are we doing here john? >> rick santorum has a new job. the former senator and failed presidential candidate will write a weekly column for the conservative world net daily site. ceo joseph made the announcement yesterday saying santorum will continue to go to bat for conservatives who feel their voices aren't being heard. >> bill: i cannot criticize rick santorum for that job because world net daily also carries my column. >> a far saner column. >> bill: i have no -- no idea why but i'm grateful for the fact that joseph -- they carry my column. i get so much hate -- i think i'm the only liberal columnist on the entire site. i'm balancing them out. lynn sweet. we haven't seen you since the election. you were on the road almost the entire month of october. you were in chicago on election night. but it turns out and it is growing more and more, the

president had a pretty healthy victory, didn't he? >> he did. >> bill: more than we thought he was going to have. >> i'm not sure what in the end the people in chicago, the team always thought he would do well. he did a healthy -- i think that's a good word, healthy. >> bill: five million. 51 pest. historic. all but one of the big battleground states. >> i'm agreeing with you. i just saw one of your -- i was reading a tweet, somebody said there's no false equivalency here answering one of your listeners, i totally agree with bill. >> bill: on? >> somebody just had a statement about false equivalencies so whoever -- your good listener, i'm agreeing with bill press. >> bill: i can't keep up with all of this traffic here. >> yes. >> bill: you just attended this forum up in cambridge where leaders of both campaigns were together. what did you learn and did

they -- was the romney campaign admitting that they blew it, basically? made any mistakes, serious mistakes? what came out of that? >> this is a form of harvard institute of politics. all of the top honchos from all of the top campaigns. we did learn some things. >> bill: for obama, you had david axelrod. >> jim messina the campaign manager. stephanie cutter. david who is not as well-known but he was in charge of the opinion research. jim marg ole is who made a lot of the commercials and jeremy byrd the director of organizing and teddy goff, the director of digital. >> bill: from the romney campaign? >> from the romney campaign, stuart stevens who was the top strategist. matt rhodes who was the campaign manager. rush reifer who was a business

partner. neil newhouse, the pollster. matt moffett their digital director. dan who was their foreign policy advisor, beth meyers. >> bill: you have all of the major players there. what did you learn from the romney campaign? >> just so many nuggets came out of it. when we talked about what happened with clint eastwood, stuart says personally, die think it was a big deal. he goes up to clint eastwood beforehand saying you're going to be talking about the same little speech you gave at two fund-raisers, aren't you? and eastwood -- he looked at him and just said yep and then he goes out and does the empty chair thing. but while that dominated the news of the night and it was part of the their at this of that convention, they didn't think it was determinative.

>> bill: they're still in denial. >> the other thing that was interesting is on the selection of paul ryan. so the democrats this we kind of knew. actually, i know from another forum that david axelrod was at the university of chicago institute of politics. he talked about how he thought all along it would be either rob portman or -- i'm blanking now. who is the other -- pawlenty or portman. >> poor tim pawlenty. >> that's what axelrod thought. when they were talking at the harvard conference, why did he pick him and a lot of it was the personal chemistry. matt rhodes said when he would talk to mitt romney which he did every morning, he said it was like talking to your buddy who just met a girl. he was giddy. newhouse said they got along so well, it was like a bromance. >> bill: no kidding. really? well there you go.

maybe he should have followed his head rather than his heart in terms of the pick. >> well, you have to have somebody you work with and at the time, there's nothing wrong with that. it was a political choice. it was somebody who -- >> bill: but it changed the dynamic from the economy to medicare. and paul ryan then mitt romney got on there. we love this debate on medicare. we'll win this debate on medicare. guess what. >> that's why i think what you have -- this is an important first cut of history, a forum like this. okay. so it wasn't the political choice on their end and look what happened. i think one of the good things about a choice when you had bill clinton pick al gore, when you had obama pick biden even when you had bush and cheney, they all, in their own way had their chemistry. but they also bring something to a ticket. or more important they do no harm. so they don't change the their at this.

they don't change the essence of the message. so when cheney was picked, people might have said is he picking his daddy's friend or someone so old to help him. those are -- that could slap down a candidate but it doesn't change your whole thrust of your main selling point which was for romney, i could be a better steward of the economy than obama. so when -- you evaluate what happened yes so it was a great chemistry. >> bill: right. but politically -- again, it changed the focus of the campaign and then what did -- what did paul ryan bring? he didn't bring wisconsin. so you ended up with two candidates. had born in or lived in and paul ryan couldn't deliver either. >> here's the other thing. i think this is why these debriefs are constructive because it is hard to get this information at the time. while the fascination with ryan on wisconsin this puts

wisconsin in play, well, what the obama team saw was that wisconsin was a -- they were struggling. they lost the recall. they had put a lot of -- progressive wing, liberal democratic communities put a lot in it. they saw that as soon as ryan was picked that, it mobilized their troops in a way that they had not imagined they could do. so in politics, or is it politics and physics, you have an action and a reaction. so yes, it might have put wisconsin in play but that's a story that has two sides to it. >> bill: yeah. >> i thought it was pretty interesting to see that because in the end it might have been -- >> bill: here's the question now. the question on moving forward is whether this impressive win by president obama and significant win by president obama and bigger than any of us thought will translate into getting things done here in washington, d.c. lynn sweet is with us. she's our guest. the washington bureau chief for "chicago sun-times." remember it is at least a

two-way street. sort of a four or five-way street here some days. you can join the conversation by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." "talking points" that the right have about "the heavy hand of government". i want to have that conversation. let's talk about it. really. really! that you're gonna lay people off because now the government's going to help you fund your health care. really? i wanna be able to have those conversations. not just to be confrontational, but to understand what the other side is saying. and you know, i'd like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the dinner table.

start you morning with a daily dose of politics from a fresh perspective. >>i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. >>only on current tv. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 25 minutes after the hour here on the "full court press" this tuesday morning. december 4. lynn sweet covers the white house and the washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times." in studio with us as a "friend of bill" this entire hour. peter, what's happening on the social world? you and lynn are so busy.

>> slapping away at our computers. yes, indeed. we're tweeting at bpshow on twitter. you can find us there. we were breaking down the disastrous romney campaign with lynn a couple of moments ago. >> bill: lynn was there at the forum up at harvard. >> igor volsky said careful this might trigger romnesia if we spend too much time talking about the romney campaign. fred wilder asks i wonder if lynn sweet is a cubs or white sox fan. inquiring minds want to know. >> you're on the spot. >> i'm going to try to make this -- >> bill: don't straddle the fence. >> i'm going to tell you i went back to the cubs once "the chicago tribune" sold them. so my allegiance once "the tribune" bought them many years ago and i was in washington. the nats weren't here yet.

it was the os. nats were the nats which still have a prime place in my heart but once "the tribune" company bought the cubs, i could go back. once they sold the cubs -- >> bill: you could go back to the cubs. i think that makes sense. >> i had to and i could not -- somebody might say why not go to the white sox. i will quickly tell you the answer. many years ago the white sox did a deal in springfield illinois, the capital where they got -- i thought it was under the radar deal to get funding for their new stadium. and i don't like under the radar deals so i couldn't go to them because that was it. >> most chicago cubs fans are looking for teams to jump too. >> i was able to go back. >> good for you. >> i could not be for a tribune team. >> bill: we have a minute here. i want to know from -- you've been talking about the election win. does that mean president obama wins the debate on the fiscal cliff? >> i think in the end he will

get what's the most important thing to him which is the 98%. could he be more clear bill? that's the one nonnegotiable thing. he's saying this is the one thing i want. therefore, everything else, maybe he can't deal on. yeah, there's a lot of ways you could take care of ensuring that the wealthiest still get many breaks but this is one the tax rate break that the president doesn't want to give. i find it fascinating that when the republicans as they did yesterday put out a counteroffer, they might be proud new republicans have signed on. i remember this whole debate is only about finding 30 or 40 republicans to go with the democrats to make the 218 majority. it is not about converting everyone who signed a grover norquist pledge. this whole thing is about finding 30 or 40 republicans. >> bill: which means of course

they have to bring it up for a vote. they could vote. with that, we'll have to pick it up again after the break with lynn sweet here on the "full court press." going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. at cepacol we've heard people are going to extremes to relieve their sore throats. oh, okay, you don't need to do that. but i don't want any more of the usual lozenges and i want new cooling relief! ugh.

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. we'll check up on this tuesday morning, december 4 we'll check up on the latest from nasa and the mars rover just a little bit later. lynn sweet is in the studio with us as a "friend of bill." she's the washington bureau chief. you know her well from the

"chicago sun times." and back to our review of the political news of the day. but first another little reminder about something you might consider. i urge you to consider if you're having trouble making ends meet at the end of each month. are you looking for some extra income. check out incomeathome.com. you've heard me talk about them before. they're america's leading work from home business, doing business in over 80 countries and this is something you can do no matter your age education or experience. you can literally earn money on your own computer from your own kitchen table 24/7. all you need is a little spare time. so if you're sick of living paycheck to paycheck, worried about job security or retirement, if your goal is to earn some extra money from home, part-time or even full time, incomeathome.com. that's where you ought to go. they're even giving away $1,000 to somebody just for checking them out. visit incomeathome.com. that's incomeathome.com.

>> bill: all right. before we move -- lynn, let's welcome steve. peter ogborn here. keeping on track of our social world. >> we're tweeting at bpshow and taking your comments in the chat room at current.com/billpress. just a quick comment from rusty cannon on twitter. we just talked about my2k, the hash tag he said i'm guessing my2k would pay the electric bill for my car elevator. >> bill: mitt may need that to pay for his. let's say hello to steve calling from hollywood california. hey, steve, good morning. >> caller: hi, bill. hi lynn. great show as always, bill. >> bill: thank you. early on the west coast we know. thanks for joining us. >> caller: great program. definitely worth getting up for. to me, if anyone should be invited to the white house for a very nice lunch and maybe get some kind of a -- it is jimmy carter's grandson for coming up

with that 47% video. >> bill: oh, yeah. >> i mean you know the truth when you hear it and when you see it and that was definitely it. and my question is did that come up at that conference you went to lynn, as a determinative factor in the process? because i would have thought it would. >> it did. and obviously -- i think it was stuart stevens said it was obviously not a high moment for the campaign. >> bill: that's the understatement of the conference. >> and they said that they did not know they've said that. now stevens was at this event but he was not in the room at the time. so that means that no one in the room of the donor or just other people thought oops, this is not going to be good. but even if you thought that, if you thought that, why would you think that there was a video being made much less something that would ever be leaked. >> bill: you know why? ask george allen because there's

videos made of everything any candidate says any time, anyplace. >> it also means in terms of staffing an event, they didn't have anyone there who was listening closely to say we might have a problem down the road. so to your caller, the other thing that was interesting is that we learned that matt rhodes and stuart and the whole team, obviously they knew the 47% was troublesome but mitt romney came to them and said you didn't say it matt. you didn't say this, stuart. i said it. and he took ownership of it. he admitted his -- >> bill: big deal. they still didn't deal with it very well, i didn't think. >> i'm just reporting how they thought that it showed to the character of romney that he took ownership. he didn't try to blame anyone else. and it did come up. this is what is interesting about history. we thought oh, my gosh, this is a big deal.

clint eastwood, empty chair that probably wasn't determine five. 47%, that did have a lasting impact. >> bill: what's delicious right, now is the fact that with president obama 51% of the vote, mitt romney has 47% of the vote. so in the end -- in the end mitt romney ends up being part of the 47% of americans that he scorned. so i want to -- there's one other little issue here. the news this morning is that the university of chicago has put in its opening bid to get the obama library. now first of all there's no doubt that's where it would go, right? where else would it go? >> university of hawaii has been openly campaigning for it for years. >> bill: oh, really? i hadn't thought about that. kenya? no. >> don't think that will happen. >> bill: but he taught at the university of chicago. >> there is a lot of family

connections there. >> bill: he did not attend the university of hawaii. his father did right? >> and his mother. there's ties. he lived there. you don't have to be -- most presidential libraries are affiliated with an academic institution. now, having said that, for years, the university of chicago has had a very quiet under the radar -- putting out feelers to get this. ask him about it. they get all muzzled. so this is breaking out in the open. i want to give credit. politico had a story on this saturday where they talked about how one of the people involved is susan who was mrs. obama's chief of staff. now an executive at the university of chicago. but what this -- there are so many ties to the university of chicago. obama was a lecturer at the law school. mrs. obama was an executive there. the daughters went to the school. close friend of the couple was the chairman of the board.

we could go on and on and on. even susan is an executive there now. and their donor community, some of them are on or have been on the board and their house is near campus. >> bill: it is a great university. >> david axelrod is launching his own institute of politics there formerly opens in january. so it would seem that if there's going to be -- if you're going to put it anywhere, this is the most logical place to put it. but obama also told jonathan alter in his book on the first year that he was even thinking of maybe a virtual library but there's going to be a brick and mortar place someplace. it may not be the scale of the kennedy library or clinton but it is interesting that now we know the timetable. we know the unveiling. this breaks out in the open more. i bet obama will not look forward to the massive fund raising that goes along with these places. >> bill: i want to put in my pitch, together with c-span's

brian that we should end this practice of every president having to have his own brick and mortar library. >> really? why is that? >> bill: because you know, it is just an ego trip for all of them. and not all presidents, frankly deserve their own library. >> not all presidents know how to read for that matter. >> bill: i would say give it all to the library of congress and have the library of congress have the official presidential forever, all 44 library. that's where their papers are. we could have a presidential -- one presidential library building in washington where -- a reagan room and an obama room and you have access to -- all scholars would have access to all of the documents. look, the gerald ford library in grand rapids, i'm sorry your cousin is here in grand rapids, i don't mean to dump on grand rapids -- >> my cousin ellen is listening. >> bill: every president has to have a library. why? this is crazy. >> these places are part

museums. part libraries part archives. >> bill: so. i've been to the richard nixon library. i was ashamed to go to the richard nixon library. he should not have a library. >> have you been to the reagan library? >> bill: i've been to the reagan library. it is a disgrace i think. >> because? >> bill: because who was ronald reagan? he was not a great president. republicans say he walked on water. he did not walk on water. he drove this country into ruin. >> i think one of the -- the building physically is well cited. i think the issue there is because there is some taxpayer money that goes into running these things from the national archives, i think you need to put it in a place that's pretty accessible to people. >> bill: simi valley is not. >> i see you have strong feelings on this. >> bill: but not just the reagan library. on all presidential libraries. >> if our taxpayer money goes it the one point i would make is they should be at places that are easy to get to for people who do want to study presidencies. there is a ton of material, i've

seen the archives, i've walked in the basement of the reagan library. you need a ton of space for all of this stuff. >> bill: fine, the library of congress. let's have it all in one central place. what's wrong with the library of congress? do you know why east los angeles got the toxic dump and the simi valley got the reagan library? >> why? >> bill: because east los angeles got first choice. [ laughter ] wow. >> bill: lynn sweet is our guest here on the "full court press." we come back, enough politics, right? we're going to go into outer space. take a rocket to mars. dr. luther beagle from nasa. >> maybe they could put some presidential libraries on mars. right? >> you don't want to outsource those jobs. >> that's a good point. >> bill: not enough room left on the united states, on our soil. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current

tv. to have the passion. come away armed with facts and the arguments to feel confident in their positions. i want them to have the data and i want them to have the passion.

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>>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. u>> i'm not prone tot. understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, it's 13 minutes before the top of the hour here on tuesday december 4. in the next hour, senator sherrod brown fresh from re-election in the state of ohio is going to be joining us. michael tomasky from "daily beast" will be here as a "friend of bill" in the next hour. sherrod brown who had more super pac money spent against him than any other incumbent senator and handily won re-election in the state of ohio. lynn sweet is in studio with us as a "friend of bill."

she's the washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times" and now a -- once again, a chicago cubs fan. we learned earlier in the hour. lynn, always good to have you here. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> bill: it has been -- we've been tracking -- ever since the mars rover landed in august, thanks to our good friend, dr. luther beagle at nasa, the progress with the mars rover some exciting things that have been discovered already. and a big announcement this week so we thought it was time to check in again with dr. luther beagle who joins us from -- today from san francisco. dr. beagle, good to talk to you again. >> hi, how you doing? >> bill: we're doing good. are you still on mars time even though you're in san francisco? >> no. i made it off mars time. didn't get divorced. was pretty happy about the whole thing. >> bill: off mars time for a couple of days huh? >> we got off mars time about four weeks ago. we're all on earth time. >> bill: why is that?

>> well, it is the way -- it was killing a lot of people. it is really difficult to do. so we went down to regular day shifts so now we're working like 8:00 to 7:00 during the day. and we program the rover and we get the information back. it is a little inefficient but it makes for a much happier work environment. >> how many hours are there in a mars day? >> 24 hours and 40 minutes. >> bill: so then you have to calculate that. >> what happens is your day starts 40 minutes later and it gets weird when it gets like 2:00 in the morning. >> bill: all right now we want to talk about mars. first, i have to ask you about the earlier in the week, maybe it was last week, i guess announcement dr. begel about finding ice on the polar caps of mercury. i don't get this. this is the hottest of the planets, is it not? and why do they have ice and why is our ice melting? is there something wrong with this picture? >> no, it's not. it is also one of the coldest

planets because one side is almost always toward the sun. one side is always in space. you've got this dichotomy of a really hot surface and a really cold surface. >> bill: it doesn't rotate? >> it rotates about once every 90 days so one side is able to cool off very quickly because it is radiating. so you've got places at the polls where it never gets hot. son and it acts as a cold trap. so any time a meteor or comet hits it, the ice can go to this cold trap on the top where the sun never hits it. >> bill: the finding of ice on mercury -- the finding of ice on mars would indicate that there could have been life there at one time. you cannot make the same leap on mercury, can you? because of other atmospheric conditions. >> there's no atmosphere. there's no real energy source at the poles.

and water is pretty common in the universe. so it doesn't necessarily mean -- because comets have water. comets are made of water. we don't expect to find life there either. the conditions just aren't right. >> bill: what's the latest from mars? >> latest from mars is we've been sitting at this place called loch ness and we've been using our scientific instruments to analyze the soil. we've been figuring out what is the oil is like and we're comparing that to other missions. what we found is really cool. we found the material on mars seems to be almost does not over the entire planet. the soil seems to exist the same in every place. this thing called praquori so you could make the case that the entire martian surface is

explosive. >> bill: didn't i read there was a finding about some organic material? >> there is. we haven't -- definitively identified the material yet. we didn't expect it in the soil because of the conditions on the surface make organic material hard to exist. it basically oxidizes into carbon dioxide. so we weren't really expecting it there. but we expected to find it inside of the rocks when we started to drill later this month or -- >> bill: lynn? >> how long -- i'm curious by the time you give a command to -- you know, to the curiosity from earth, how long does it take to have something move? if you say dig here, go there drill down harder, is it a matter of hours minutes? i forget how long does it take to get the signal over there and to move the rover? >> all of these things happened 11 months ago right?

>> no. it takes -- the light time is from 20 minutes back from mars but in reality once we decide what we're going to do we have a science operational working group. we decide what we're going to do and the sol is a martian day. we write the script. we program -- we write the program. that takes about six hours to write. and then it gets sent from the deep space network to mars where the rover picks it up and the rover does all of those operations during that day. it gets that information first thing in the morning and then it is with us all day long. you program an entire day in one sitting. >> i love that name. did you say deep mars network? >> deep space. reporting live from the deep space network. so that's interesting. why do a whole day's worth of instructions at one time?

is it more efficient form the machine? does it -- >> there's always this 20-minute light delay. in writing the program writing the scripts it's called, takes a little bit of time to do. we have to get together and review things. doing it in real time is inefficient. the way the rover works is the rover always talks to an orbiter. we talk to an orbiter. we sit in the command and it keeps it -- in its memory. it talks to the rover and the rower talks back. >> bill: dr. beegle, fascinating stuff. thank you again for all you're doing there. you and all your team at nasa. we'll talk to you again soon. lynn, if we could only get them to send a package of instructions to john boehner and the republicans in the house maybe we could get things done. thank you for coming in again. >> thank you so much. >> bill: always good to see you. lots of fun. i'll be right back with a quick look at the president's schedule

for today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: michael tomasky here as a "friend of bill" in the next hour with senator sherrod brown from ohio. president obama meeting with a group of governors today at the white house about the fiscal cliff. they know how important it is. they know how -- they depend on the federal government getting its stuff together. and the president is asking them to put pressure on house republicans to do the right thing. then the president and the vice president meet for lunch and this afternoon, the president and the vice president will have their weekly meeting with

secretary of defense leon panetta. jay carney and our press briefing today will be held at 1:00 p.m. back with senator sherrod brown in the next hour. the "full court press."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning, fellow americans. and welcome, a big welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv this tuesday morning december 4. great to see you today. we'll bring you up to date on what's happening in the world. here in our nation's capital. around the country around the globe. and of course, give you a chance to sound off, give us a call any

time at 1-866-55-press. how about this. word is out today that roger ailes urged david petraeus to run for president of the united states against barack obama and ailes promised if petraeus would do so, he would, roger ailes would quit fox news and run petraeus' campaign. don't tell me the fox news is anything but the broadcast arm of the republican national party. this proves it! all right. that and a whole lot more here on the "full court press." but what's happening let's get the latest, today's current news update from lisa ferguson. joining us from our studios out in los angeles. hi lisa, good morning. >> hey bill, good morning everyone. a top official in the justice department will resign on friday in light of the botched fast and furious gun-running scheme between the u.s./mexico border. his name is gary grinler and he

held quite a few positions. he was attorney general, eric holder's chief of staff. also serving as the deputy attorney general and his department oversaw the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. the atf ran the program which lost track of hundreds of illegally purchased weapons in the hands of mexican cartels. the house oversight committee named grinle rerks citing for him for failing to oversee the program. several atf officials have stepped down. on wednesday, the house will get a big briefing over the attacks in benghazi. this is not open to the press. so we'll only know what they choose to tell us. we do know that national intelligence director james clapper and national terrorism center director matthew olson are among the top officials giving that presentation. and hispanic fund-raisers are creating a new group focused on immigration. actress eva longoria is one of three megadonors leading the

initiative along with other latino leaders who helped re-elect the president. their plan is to create a strong online and social media presence which they hope will pressure congress into passing comprehensive immigration reform. we'll be right back. alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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...but i'm a woman. maybe it's a misprint. does it look like a misprint? ok. what i was trying... [ voice of dennis ] silence. ♪ ♪ ask an allstate agent about the safe driving bonus check. are you in good hands? [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. is it 27 days or 28 days, who knows, all i know is they're no closer to it than they were yesterday. good morning, everybody. this is the "full court press" on tuesday december 4. good to see you today. and thanks for being part of the program.

good to have you with us as we come to you live from our nation's capital and bring you the news of the day here in washington, d.c. they had time to party last night at the white house but no time to work out a deal. the nra accusing -- demanding that bob costas be fired for daring say a gun had anything to do with a murder suicide in kansas city over the weekend. and in the middle east, more and more signs that the days of president assad of syria are numbered with the rebels gaining ground and now even russia intervening to say it's time that -- they're almost ready to say the time assad should step down getting close to it. on all fronts, we'll bring you the news of the day and get you involved to talk about it. hear what it means to you. give us a call at 1-866-55-press talk to us on twitter at bpshow and follow us on facebook,

facebook.com/billpressshow to help us through the events of the day. someone who writes about them every day several times a day for "daily beast," michael tomasky, columnist for the "daily beast" joining us in studio. you write for so many publications. you also do some stuff for new york review, books? >> yeah. those are my main two things. >> bill: then you have democracy. >> democracy. journal of ideas. i'm the editor of it. i write for it once a year or something like that. very nice of you to mention democracy, i would like to see people check out democracyjournal. >> bill: there it is. michael tomasky. nice of you to take time for us. our regular team here on deck as always. peter ogborn and dan henning. >> happy tuesday. >> bill: good morning, good morning. phil backert's got the phones cover and cyprian bowlding, of course, has the cameras covered. cyprian -- >> still very excited this morning. >> bill: very excited this morning about the redskins.

knocking off the giants last night. just trounced them. 17 -- >> hey! >> they're a terrible team. >> bill: 49-0? you know, keeps hope alive for football here in the nation's capital. >> we have the most exciting player in the nfl playing for us. robert griffin iii. the most exciting player to watch play football. the rest of the team, needs some work but he himself is a very exciting player to watch. >> bill: so yesterday on the hill, michael, there is a funny moment. some obscure issue, john mccain and john kerry actually agreed on and held a joint news conference and little back and forth needling of the other. here's john kerry when he finishes his remarks and calls on senator mccain. >> senator mccain -- >> thank you very much

mr. secretary. [ laughter ] >> bill: talking state? >> thank you very much, mr. president. [ laughter ] >> this is what happens when you get two losers up here, folks. [ laughter ] we're just having fun. >> bill: good comeback on john kerry's part. >> mccain didn't think that was so funny. >> bill: all right. we've got lots to cover. john boehner actually out yesterday with a counterproposal on the fiscal cliff but how serious is it? really? we'll get into that and a whole lot more. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news, the new york city homeless man who was in that photo that went viral last week where a police officer brought him a pair of shoes on a cold night was found by "the new york times" yesterday not wearing those brand new boots. 54-year-old jeffrey hillman said he was incretbly grateful to

nypd officer but said he's hiding the $100 pair of shoes because he could lose his life over them because they're so valuable so he would rather go barefoot. >> wow. >> wild. it is a wild story. >> bill: yeah but you know that i could see that, right? somebody with a pair of shoes that valuable. >> a new poll is out showing just how much we trust members of congress and it is just above a used car salesman. gallup finds that 10% of americans rate the honesty and ethical standards of members of congress as high compared to 8% who say the same about used car salesmen. traditionally, the highest percentage of those who trust capitol hill lawmakers have only gone to 25%. that was just after the september 11th attacks. >> bill: i think that's not fair to -- i have to say sellers of pre-owned cars. nobody says used car salesmen

anymore. i would trust a salesman for a preowned vehicle more than i would trust most of these members of congress. >> and speaking of members congratulations to senator ron widen, the oregon democrat welcoming his fifth child into the world last week. oregonlive.com tells us scarlet was born thursday. 7 pounds, 11 ounces. the senator and his second wife's third child together. they have twin 5-year-old boys as well. he has two adult children from a previous marriage. >> bill: and -- >> five kids, man. >> bill: and he's from oregon, of course. his wife owns one of the best book stores in the country. the strand bookstore in new york city which is a whole building. it is a fabulous, fabulous store. have you ever been there michael? >> bass, right? >> bill: the family. incredible store. there you are. 12 minutes after the hour.

michael tomasky, i want to ask you about the -- john boehner counteroffer yesterday. but first, this is totally out of the blue today. "the washington post" dropping this -- i think bombshell about roger ailes and david petraeus. so -- >> david petraeus got with him too? does the man know no -- sorry. >> bill: so according to the post, it is in the style section this morning, roger ailes deputized mcfarland fox news analyst. she's gone over to afghanistan to report and so he says i have a message for you to carry to general petraeus and she does. she delivers a message from roger ailes which is here's my advice to you david petraeus. if president obama offers you to be joint chiefs, chafer the

joint chiefs, take it. if he offers you anything less like a measly little job like being head of the c.i.a., turn it down, quit, run against obama in 2012 and i, roger ailes will quit fox news and run your campaign. michael tomasky, what does this say about fox news. >> it says what we've known all along. it is an arm of the republican party. i mean imagine bill, the head of msnbc i don't even know who that is. >> bill: phil griffin. >> imagine phil griffin did something similar with -- i don't know who the analogous public figure would be. imagine he tried to do that. >> colin powell. >> colin powell or something like that. >> bill: run against obama because obama's not a liberal enough. >> run against -- if there were a republican president. if john kerry were right and mccain is president and you

know you go run against president mccain. can you imagine how they would be howling on the right wing? >> bill: they would have been demanding they shut down the network. take their license away, the whole thing. roger does this. the accusation that fox is nothing but the propaganda arm or the broadcast arm of the republican national committee is right. you know. >> by the way, this piece is by bob woodward. this is not some kid. >> bill: i didn't notice that. >> it is by bob woodward. he dug this out somewhere. somebody came to him with it. that adds weight to it. but you know, it is like we've always said, nothing about fox is shocking, you know. so they benefit from the ridiculously low expectations because nobody expects them even to be a serious even-handed news network. >> bill: as a segue, i guess nobody expected a serious counter proposal to come from john boehner.

and we didn't get it yesterday. so republicans have been accusing president obama of not having any specifics and then jay carney and those pointed out hey, wait a minute, we've had this plan for over a year. come on. we got all of the specifics. here's where we would cut. here's what loopholes we would close. so republicans had to come up with something. and yesterday, it came up with a plan, last week, michael, they were all saying we can't wait to throw grover norquist under the bus. yesterday, looks to me like grover norquist is still in charge. >> sure. >> bill: one thing that in their plan, they don't identify loopholes they would close. they don't identify spending cuts for the most part they would make and they say no, we're going to keep the tax breaks for the top 2%. what's changed? what's different? >> nothing's changed. their fundamental problem is this, as you know. the thing that's most important to them, emotionally and in policy terms i guess but just in their gut, the thing that's most important to them is to cut

taxes for wealthy people. cut taxes at the high end. that's the thing that's most important to them. that's their theology. it is not just policy. that's their theology. that's their core belief. so everything else, that's the center of their solar system. everything else has to be rearranged around the core belief of keeping taxes low for the rich. that's the heart of it. so everything else they do they have to sort of adjust around that but they can't tell the people the truth about that. because they know that the people don't support them. in recent -- last week's -- who was it, "washington post" poll, i can't remember the poll. but even 68% of republicans didn't want, for example to raise the medicare eligibility rate age to 67. >> bill: which of course john boehner does in this proposal. who are they serving? who are they representing? >> they're serving the people who financed their campaigns and they're serving their

ideological belief. i guess they actually have persuaded themselves over the last 30 years to believe that if you put hundreds of thousands of dollars back in the hands of millionaires, that's the best way to benefit the rest of us. >> bill: when we've seen that's simply not true. two questions. number one. don't they remember that these tax cuts were enacted in 2001 when we had a surplus and as a temporary measure. what part of temporary don't they understand? >> right. >> bill: don't they remember, too, that more recently, less than a month ago, we had an election. there was really one issue. obama made it clear at every rally. you want the wealthy to pay higher taxes? vote for me. you want them to get a free ride, a continued free ride, vote for romney. >> that was the main policy issue in the election. >> bill: the main difference between the two of them. but you know they don't care. >> and you know, i invite them.

i mean look, it is fine by me. it is fine by us. if they take this position. we'll sacrifice everything. we'll sacrifice the fiscal health and integrity of the country so we can cut tax on the wealthy. "the washington post" -- looking at it before i came here. who would you blame if there is no deal by january 1st. 53%, republicans. 27%, obama. >> bill: really? dan, jay carney spoke yesterday about what would happen if legislation comes to the president and includes a continued tax break for the wealthiest 2%. president said this before. jay has said it before. he said it again yesterday. >> he will not sign an extension of the bush era tax cuts for the top 2%. full stop. >> bill: full stop.

just don't even go there, right? >> right. >> bill: so it looks like the white house is determined, i read it, that no deal is better than a bad deal. and they're willing to accept no deal rather than a bad deal. bad deal defined by one that continues the tax cuts. >> i think they can afford to do that politically. >> bill: amen. >> because the public is on their side number one. democrats and independents, not republicans. republicans support -- >> bill: they lost. >> democrats and independents are strongly on the president's side. so he's got public opinion. and he's also got the political reality that even if january 1st passes, you can always come back and pass a bill and date it retroactively to january 1st so that middle income people never saw a tax increase. >> bill: right. good question. it comes down to the only choice is to sign a bill with -- that does extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest of americans or to veto that bill, what should the

president do? i say veto it. don't take it. stick to your guns. you won the election. the american people, as you point out michael are behind you. 1-866-55-press. join the conversation with michael tomasky from "daily beast" here on today's "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show" live on your radio and on current tv. dinner table. the right have about "the heavy hand of government". i want to have that conversation. let's talk about it. really. really! that you're gonna lay people off because now the government's going to help you fund your health care. really? i wanna be able to have those conversations. not just to be confrontational, but to understand what the other side is saying. and you know, i'd like to arm our viewers with the ability to argue with their conservative uncle joe over the dinner table.

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: joe cirincione is our guest from the ploughshares fund >> announcer: this is the full court press. the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: hey this is it. 25 minutes after the hour now here on the "full court press."

on a tuesday december 4. senator sherrod brown recently re-elected to the united states senate from the state of ohio. with the help i might add of a lot of you who joined in that campaign because senator sherrod brown was our guest many times during his re-election campaign. he will be in studio with us, joining me and michael tomasky columnist for the "daily beast" here in just a few minutes. peter, what's up on the social network? >> we're tweeting at bpshow at bpshow. one person in particular taking an issue with something that you said bill. rena davis chiming in on your dislike of the presidential libraries. she says i love your show, bill but i totally disagree with president obama not having a presidential library. if anyone deserves one it is obama. >> bill: with all due respect that's missing the point. my point is not against the obama library. my point is a rant against all

presidential libraries. i don't care if it's fdr and i've been to that one or ronald reagan. i've been to that one or richard nixon, i've been to that one. i think everything ought to be housed in the library of congress for the american people. and we don't need brick and mortar edifices to every president, good and bad but that's my little rant. it has been 24 hours so have you tweeted the pope yet? >> no. >> bill: what? come on. you got him out there. >> i would like to get him to do one of the friday follows of me. that's my long-term goal. [ laughter ] >> he's going to have a few more followers than i am. >> we did tweet to the pope. we asked the pope if he thinks that speaker boehner is possessed by a demon. we have not got an response yet. the pope has 367,884 followers.

zero tweets. he hasn't tweeted anything yet. >> bill: how can you have that many followers without a tweet? >> everyone knows he's tweeting so they're following him. >> bill: we had the classic yesterday, michael the classic tweet. one of our listeners or viewers wanted us to tweet to the pope, peter -- >> it was -- would jesus be able to microwave a burrito for so long it would make it so hot would he still be able to eat it? >> i've wondered that many, many times. >> bill: we have, too. so you think there will be a deal? fiscal cliff? >> i don't think so before january 1st no. i actually don't. i think there may be a vote right after. one scenario i read about yesterday which i mentioned in my column this morning which was pretty interesting to me is that the republicans might let a vote happen in the house but all vote present and let it pass solely

with the democratic voters. >> bill: okay. we'll talk about that and other scenarios with senator sherrod brown when we come back here on the "full court press." when the last card is played what will be remembered? explore the lives of the famous and infamous who changed our world forever. experience the drama, back to back to back. of all the hours in all their days, the ones you'll never forget are the final 24. don't miss the final 24 mini-marathon this sunday on current tv. save the best for last.

>> announcer: chatting where you live at current.com/billpress this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: you got it. 33 minutes after the hour now. the "full court press" on this tuesday, december 4. michael tomasky has been in studio with us. he's here as a "friend of bill" of this hour. columnist for the "daily beast." we're so please and proud and excited to welcome back in studio fresh from his

overwhelming re-election victory in the state of ohio, senator sherrod brown. senator, congratulations. >> good to be back. good to be with michael. i like that. >> bill: we know a lot of our -- >> michael's got ohio relatives as you probably know. >> yes, i do. >> my chief of staff, when he was out helping at the end of the campaign last few days, stayed at michael's sisters house with her and her husband. >> probably the room where i'll stay at christmastime. >> bill: we know a lot of our listeners and viewers around the country chimed in to help out in ohio as well. >> people were helpful. ohio was -- obviously there are a number of swing states but ohio seems to be the one that they're so much focused on. we got a lot of help. a lot of grassroots help, a lot of financial support from around the country in small contributions and people just really stepped up for the president, for me both and i'm very grateful for that. >> bill: we learned yesterday that sheldon adelson from las vegas spent more than $100

million -- $150 million -- >> that's the number. >> bill: he lost about every state that he was in including yours. the super pacs, what was the total? >> outside groups against me spent $40 million. they spent $30 million on tv and another $10 million on radio. billboards, direct mail and paid phone banking and paid canvassers. that's the last $10 million is a rougher estimate. we know the $30 million on television. unfortunately, it is unlimited in maybe ways. my fear is they're going to go arrive legislative races and where somebody can't fight back, we can fight back. i'm incumbent senator. i had a lot of help around the country. it was a visible race. we had a good grassroots effort. that meant two or three points both for the president and for me, i think. and in ohio, it was -- we're seeing job growth. we went from over 10.5% unemployment around the time of the auto rescue taking hold to below -- by election day, it was 7. now it is 6.9%.

not good enough. still a lot of people out of the work force and wages have stagnated far too much. we're seeing things going theú right direction in my state. >> bill: and everybody said ohio is the key state. that's going to determine it. and president obama right? >> we were talking right before the show that they're discounting the provisional ballots which are these contested ballots when people vote on election day and there's some question whether they're registered or whether they're -- it is not the voter's fault. it is board of elections fault. there were a couple hundred thousand at least of those. they're just finishing them. and it gave the president we think, another 50,000, 6,000 or 70,000 vote margin from what we had before. these are votes that the election machinery in ohio now has -- the people running it have a partisan edge to them.

when i was secretary of state in the '80s, we didn't have that. they've about provisional balloting. >> bill: they tried to shut down the early voting for the last weekend before the election except for military families. >> judge said they couldn't. in many ways, it probably backfired because i heard a lot of people say that in the churches and other places, people were saying ministers and others were saying don't let them take this vote away. it made people -- he tells people you can't have something it makes them a little bit more defiant sometimes and i think that's what happened. i think the attacks by republicans on the president the personal attacks of -- as religion and where he grew up and his citizenship and birth certificate, all of that, bothered enough people that progressives and african-americans that turnout was up because of that. i think that kind of sleazy politics really backfired on

him. maybe there is a lesson there, i hope. >> bill: michael they're still counting ballots like in new jersey and new york because of hurricane sandy, there were some ballots -- paper ballots they couldn't get in. every day the president's margin keeps growing to the point where he's got 51% of the vote now. mitt romney, 47%. 47%. >> i think president obama's the first democrat in -- since roosevelt to break 50 and he's broken it twice, right? >> the first to do it twice. i think johnson did it once. >> of course, johnson did it once. that's right. get somebody in here that knows something. not that you don't. >> hey, thanks a lot! >> not just the politics aspect. >> that's right. of course johnson did it. obama did it twice. >> bill: so it turned out despite all of the talk ahead of time about how close this is and

real nail-biter -- it turned out to be an historic win for obama. >> but none of these states were -- what's really curious is what republican polls were telling -- pollsters were telling. i talked to paul ryan the other day. he really thought they were going to win. they were told that. >> bill: they were drinking their own kool-aid. >> this echo chamber for them is weave this cocoon around them that is impenetrable to objective information. it is pretty interesting. >> bill: they did it. senator, i think you sell yourself a little short. you said that all of the money came in against you and you were able to fight back but the point is you did fight back. and what i -- i think there is a lesson learned here that liberals don't have to be afraid of who they are. you can be who you are and let people understand why you take the decisions you do on certain issues and still win. liberals feel they have to go to the middle ground.

it is duck for cover. >> there really is -- voters don't see left to right. my opponent overwhelmingly said it every single appearance, every single debate. sherrod brown is the most liberal guy in washington. that includes bernie sanders who is a self-allowed socialist. he also had a line that i kind of admired. he said sherron brown has been running for president since nixon and -- nixon was president. my answer to that would always be -- the voters don't see left to right. they really see who's on your side. and i think on issues, ohio, whether it is auto rescue or trade enforcement or fighting for jobs or healthcare, or medicare or social security, it is who's on your side. who's going to fight for the middle class and working families. who will fight for poor kids who don't have opportunity. in the end that wins elections. you don't need to move to the center. you don't need to talk mishmash and cloud the issue.

you talk directly and voters appreciate it. >> bill: there's no doubt of moving to the issue of the day here in washington, d.c. isn't that the central issue now in the negotiations on this fiscal cliff and there's no doubt that president obama is on the side of the 98% and john boehner is on the side of the 2%. the republican party right? i think it is as clear as that. don't the american people see that? >> i think that's why the president is going around the country to put pressure on them because in the end i mean the end, the tax cuts expire and so tax rates go up and the president comes back to congress and says you know, give the tax break back to the middle class and i don't know what republicans are going to do then. they're going to continue to try to fight for the 2%. i don't know. but he's doing it right and he shouldn't see -- he shouldn't seed the ground on that issue. he shouldn't seed it. that was what the election is about. republicans are trying to say well george bush tried that with social security. george bush in '04 didn't talk about privatizing social security. he wouldn't have won.

he acted like that was his mandate. he was going to spend his capital for it. this was an election issue. we all were very clear. i was clear in my debates. you don't do more tax cuts for the rich. you focus on the middle class. the president was clear. we all were clear and that's what the election -- that was really -- that's the 4% difference that the president won was that issue. >> bill: it sounds to me like you agree -- we were talking about this before you arrived that there will not be a deal -- is this what you're saying, we'll go over the cliff then have to come back and pass a tax cut for the 98%? >> i heard michael say that. i think there is a good chance he's right. i hope he's not. i hope that the republicans see that's what would happen if they don't find a way to just pass the tax cut for the middle class now. and then start talking about the other issues which we can discuss. but when they put out their proposal yesterday, it was -- they talk about all of the revenues from closing tax loopholes, they don't tell us what they are they say let the

finance committee and the senate, ways and means do it. that's not leadership and that's not a proposal anymore than there are unspecified cuts. at least they're finally explaining they are, in fact, coming after medicare and social security. they're being a little bit more specific there. they're wrong on what they want to do but at least they're saying something there. on the revenue side, they're being disingenuous. >> very surprised to see that about social security. i want to ask you about this concept that i wrote about today. you were in the house for a long time. this concept of the majority of the majority. so denny laid this out. boehner goes by this. in other words they won't let anything get to the floor unless it has a majority of support within their own caucus. for people out there who think a deal may pass with 180 democratic votes -- republicans won't let that happen. is that true? is that majority of majority rule going to be so concrete and set in stone here or is there

some flexibility? >> i don't know that boehner can afford to let that happen. that's the way they've operated for who knows how many years. you're right. dennis hastert started and stated it. i don't know if boehner has ever stated it. and there's this view of many and i'm not an insider in this operation at all. there is this view of many that eric cantor is standing right behind john bainer with a very sharp knife. if boehner undercuts the tea party and i don't know how many tea party members, how do you define if it's 100 or 120 very conservative members of the house, ultra conservatives, not just the mainstream conservatives, i don't know where they -- what they do if boehner takes it to the floor you get 180 democrats and 40 or 50 republicans. >> bill: i think that's why boehner is afraid to take it to the floor. he knows it would pass. also democratic leader nancy pelosi today is issuing her discharge position to try to get them. let's talk about that when we come back with senator sherrod

brown and michael tomasky from the "daily beast." today's "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." perspective. >>i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. >>only on current tv.

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>>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. u>> i'm not prone tot. understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> announcer: this should the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. s. >> bill: we're on the air senator. >> i was talking about how -- >> i insulted you by complimenting tomasky earlier. >> bill: senator sherrod brown from ohio. michael tomasky, "daily beast" in studio with us. back to our conversation.

want to remind you of something you ought to check out. tryancestry.com. join me. you've heard me talk about the fun i've had with tryancestry.com. looking at my own family roots i've been able to trace the press family to salem new jersey and then across the pond to riga in latvia. i always thought that's where we came from. thanks to tryancestry.com, i've been able to establish it. >> back to rx iga? >> bill: tracing them backwards. came to riga and from salem to delaware city. try it out. you can maybe find out stuff about your family you can share with your family at your next holiday gathering. they've made it easy for you by giving you two free weeks at tryancestry.com. two free weeks to see what you can discover about your family. go to tryancestry.com, that's

tryancestry.com. so senator sherrod brown, you are back and with you in the senate you've got some pretty exciting new democrats too right? >> we do. >> bill: things are looking up in the senate. >> there is a good, new group of progressive democrats i think that understand the democratic way of the democratic party. people like tammy baldwin and macy and elizabeth warren and i think -- i think -- i don't want to exclude anybody but i think all of this group is a good group of tried and true progressives. five members from the house have come. from new mexico, from indiana in addition to tammy and macy. i think that we're going to see -- on some rules changes and moving ahead in some other things i think people will be pleased with that. >> bill: democratic wing of the democratic party -- howard dean, wasn't it? that was howard dean.

>> it has been around awhile. >> bill: carol and i were driving the other day -- we saw a wellstone bumper sticker the other day. oh, my god paul wellstone. >> they just honored him. it was a 10-year anniversary of his death. they just did a little reception. senator frank the other day, at the capitol. a lot of his former staff. >> bill: what a loss. you mention maybe some reform by the rules. reform on the filibuster? >> the two people that are leading this are tom udall from new mexico and jeff merkley from oregon. and you know, the hurdles someone once said that during the 1950s writer was talking about the southern democrats blocking civil rights and they said that the senate was ending revenge for gettysburg and the

rules of the senate have lent themselves -- back then, it blocked civil rights but it wasn't a work a day kind of obstructionist. as horrible as it was blocking civil rights legislation. today is it is almost everything. you need 60 votes. it doesn't even -- the majority leader can't even bring a bill up to debate without a 60 votes if the minority wants to force 60 votes. that's got to change. the selection -- the confirmation of federal judges and less than cabinet level appointees, those kinds of things are just obstructionism, period. when in the past, we always were able to just bring it forward to get 51 votes. if you don't, you don't. some of these votes will be more aimed to that. certainly to give the minority rights to slow things down but not to block things. almost haphazardly the way they do. >> bill: otherwise it is the tyranny of the minority. >> it really has become that

way. so much of what the president wanted to do, he couldn't do. they say well, he had 60 votes. we had 60 votes for a limited amount of time and we had exactly 60. we couldn't lose one democrat. that's just not the way you should have to govern. the country voted for change in 2008. we did a number of things but we weren't able to do what we should have done with the economy. even a long-term transportation bill we couldn't do or a farm bill in part because of the 60 vote rules. >> bill: what's amazing is with that rule how -- and there's a piece on the front page of the hill this morning how mitch mcconnell was able to allow the vote on 98% the tax break up for a vote without using the filibuster and really has put the house republicans now in a box right? senate has passed it. bipartisan vote. president says he'll sign it. >> house just votes for it. it's done. >> bill: easily done.

>> senator is there -- the rule changes that are proposed, as i read them, it is all well and good. it is great to start. it doesn't strike me these particular changes are going to really change the habits of the senate that much. it doesn't -- it doesn't change the culture provision for example, right? >> bill: you know what, guys? we'll have to hold this conversation. i thought it might have been a quick question. it is a longer question with a longer answer. senator sherrod brown we're so excited you're back. congratulations. thanks for coming in. michael, thanks for being here. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

start you morning with a daily dose of politics from a fresh perspective. >>i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. >>only on current tv. [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey and on this tuesday, december 4 my parting shot for today it didn't last long, did it? remember last week, republicans were saying they couldn't wait to throw grover norquist under the bus. yesterday we discovered when john boehner released his counterproposal on the fiscal cliff that grover norquist is still very much in charge of the republican party. republicans said once again that they were absolutely unwilling to raise tax rates on the wealthiest of americans. even though they were adopted in 2001 as a temporary measure only because we had a surplus. they were temporary because ten years later, we might have a surplus. we might need the money. that's exactly the situation is today. but sadly, it is not grover norquist or mitt romney or mitch

mcconnell that's running the republican party. it is still a big lobbyist by the name of grover norquist. have a good one folks!